Sons of Anubis – a Brief History

** Please tune in every Friday for a new blog post about my Sons of Anubis series from Harlequin’s Nocturne Bites!**

Anubis

The Sons of Anubis are jackal shapeshifters—they have a human form and a jackal form. Millennia ago, the god Anubis called jackals from the grasslands beyond the Great Western Desert and imbued them with his power, giving them the ability to assume human form and charging them to aid him in his duties as lord of the underworld.

Helping them do this were the Daughters of Isis. For thousands of years they worked together, lived together. Some even loved together. Then the witches betrayed the jackals, and an unending war thus began.

Markus has led his jackals across the world for thousands of years, always vigilant, always ready to defend his clan. When a fatal curse strikes those he holds dear, he will do everything in his power to prevent another death.

From chapter one of Seducing the Jackal:

The Daughters of Isis used to collaborate with the Sons of Anubis to protect the funerary temples and complexes and prevent the dead from returning to the land of the living. Some of the dead didn’t know the spells to make it through the Weighing of the Heart ceremony and on to the Field of Reeds. Some simply didn’t want to go through the trials in the Underworld or were afraid that their souls would be fed to Ammit the Devourer. Still others lost their way or coveted what they’d left behind: life.

Regardless of the reason, some of the dead returned and in the journey back to the land of the living became darker, more evil: the Lost Ones.

When the dead rose from the sands as undead, the Sons of Anubis were called to action. The Daughters of Isis would empower them, weave spells to protect them and, after battle, heal them. When possible, they returned the Lost Ones to their graves and tombs so they wouldn’t be forgotten. Otherwise they were destroyed and became as dust.

That was then, a glorious work lost in the sands of time. Now all the Isis witches seemed to do was find inventive ways to kill jackals. Markus bared his teeth. No more. Tonight the witches would learn the meaning of fear. Tonight a Daughter of Isis would become a prisoner of the Sons of Anubis.

Markus carried his unconscious prize out of the house and over the back fence in less than two minutes. A quick dash through the wooded lot to the waiting van, and they were on their way.

Only when he had received word that the rest of his men were safely out did Markus allow himself to relax. So far, so good. The most dangerous part of the mission was complete.

“You think this will work?” asked Hector.

Markus knew his second in command didn’t doubt the mission. No one questioned him in that regard; he’d proven his ability to lead centuries ago. Hector’s blood brother was one of the afflicted, in the first stages of a debilitating illness that had cost the lives of four jackals so far. Markus swore there wouldn’t be a fifth, and this witch would guarantee it.

“It will.” Confidence loaded his words. “She’s a Daughter of Isis. One of them cast the curse. She’ll break it.”

“What if she doesn’t?”

“Then we’ll use her as bait to trap another witch.” He leaned forward on the jump seat. “One way or another, we’ll end this curse. I don’t care if we have to trap every Isis witch in the northern hemisphere to do it. We do whatever it takes.”

He held up his fist. “For Sons and brothers.”

Hector tapped it with his own. “For Sons and brothers.”

Coming next week: more about Markus Anapa, the leader of the Sons of Anubis. Also, another excerpt!